If you ever rent a two-wheel drive Toyata Corolla and decide it would be fun to see how far into you can drive it into the world's largest sand desert (Arabia's Rub-al-Khali), think again.  I'm serious. It sounds fun, but will seem less fun when you sink into the sand at dusk a good 10 Km from the nearest road.

If you fail to heed my sage advice, however, follow these instructions very carefully, and you'll be just fine:

1. Find the nearest oasis

2. Build fire at said oasis

3. Repeatedly think about how cool this story will be when told to your grandkids to stave off abject terror

4. eat whatever snacks you had in the car

5. In the morning, try to build sand ladders out of palm fronds to get your car out of the sand.

6. When that process clearly isn't working, wait for a friendly bedouin to happen upon you fortuitously just as you are running out of water (oddly, this "oasis" may not have actual water above ground!)

7. Watch in amazement as bedouin guy deflates your tires, and slowly drives your car out of its sandy grave

8. Thank kindly bedouin nomad profusely.

Hope this saves your life someday!